'Reading is fun' mural

ROLE

mural artist

DESCRIPTION

The ObA (Amsterdam library) asked me to make a wall painting in their children's non-fiction book section. It was a fun process to get to an image which is appealing to all children with all sorts of backgrounds and interests who visit the library — but to also think of a peaceful atmosphere that invites children to read.

PROJECT DURATION

December 2023 - July 2024

CREDITS

Client: ObA Javaplein, Ivana Cult

Concept and realization: Leo de Wijs

FORM

mural paintings

A world of information

The main goal of the mural was to entice children to look at the information books to learn about a broad variety of subjects, from history to arts and crafts, from space exploration to Minecraft. And since this library was pretty boring as a building, make it bright and colourful.

Ideas starts in a book

I started in my sketchbook thinking up possible themes and approaches for the mural. This was a great starting point for the conversation of what the client liked to see.

Finding the right inspiration

A explosion of color and things that come out of a book - I found some beautiful inspiration to guide the design.

Design on top of photo's

The best way to design, I thought was directly on top of photo's of the actual library walls. It makes it really clear on what it would look and feel like in context to the space.

Going overboard

When the conceptual direction was approved, I couldn't resist adding even more items and ideas. The client rightfully pulled me back that this became to busy and too time-consuming to paint.

Progress of the painting

So a dressed down concept I started painting on the wall with acrylics over the course of many different sessions - here are some progress photo's to give you an idea.

End result

This is part of the final result. To see the rest scroll down to the next gallery. It's just too big to properly show all at once.

A character for all

The concept of what the story and character is about changed a lot during the development. Here are some examples of how this changed.

Storytelling

I thought up a little story of a character picking up a book, then get carried it away by it content. And when it's all out, the character finds a cosy spot in the library to read the actual book it's chosen.

Inspiration

I made a moodboard combining my and the client preference for a possible character. The premise - keep it simple, keep it undefined so that everyone can relate to it.

Old fashioned sketching

With this in mind I tried out a variety of designs. In the end we stuck with what I thought up at first - a bean with leg and arms.

Colour choices

The character needs to work well on the purple wall. So I suggested a few options of what colour would work well. We stuck with orange in the end.

The final result

How it works when painted for real.

Walk by the main mural

To give a sense of the whole main mural - I filmed this walk-by.

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